


Can't have a return ticket for a stolen present

by qkind



Series: Killerwave week 2016 [5]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Christmas, F/M, KillerWave Week 2016, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 07:38:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7351975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qkind/pseuds/qkind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 5: Holidays</p><p>Christmas at Hogwarts is better than Caitlin would have ever imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't have a return ticket for a stolen present

“And Dante always gets the best presents, seriously, last year he got this beautiful fossilized dragon egg, while I got _new underwear_. Underwear! I needed it, but that is not the point. He didn’t even let me get a close look to the egg, and now is always hidden in his room. It’s calling me Cait, but I can’t go in there because he put on special repelling spells to keep me out ever since he was old enough to be allowed to do magic outside of school. It’s going to be _awful_!”

Caitlin only half listened to Cisco talk about his family woes. He pretended to hate going home for Christmas, complaining about his brother the sixteen hours a day he was awake, but the closer to winter break they got, the more ridiculous his complaints got and his excitement shone through.

Meanwhile, she would be staying all break at Hogwarts. For a first year with few friends, all of whom would be going to their respective homes, she supposed this meant it would be a lonely Christmas spent reading under candlelight and drinking unhealthy amounts of hot cocoa. So exactly how it had been ever since she could remember.

The Ravenclaw common room was almost empty when she and Cisco crossed the doorway. It seemed like most of their housemates were trying to make up for the all-nighters they’d pulled during exams by going to sleep early. 

“I’m beat. You going to bed, Cait?”

Caitlin shook her head. “No, I’ll stay for a while. I want to finish reading an article on longevity spells I found.”

“’Kay. See you tomorrow.” With a huge yawn Cisco went for the stairs in the west side of the tower, while Caitlin moved to sit in her favorite armchair by the fireplace.

At some point in the evening she finished reading her article and just stared at the flickering flames, entranced by her shifting colors, mind blissfully blank. She only lifted her head when a shadow fell over her.

“Hi, Hartley.”

The second year smiled, tight-lipped, and sat in an armchair next to Caitlin. 

“So how is it that this Christmas cheer that seems to have infected everyone else in this school isn’t lighting up Caitlin Snow’s face?”

Caitlin grimaced and looked back at the fire. “Not much to be cheery about. I’m staying here, doing the usual things.” 

Hartley looked speculative. 

“You’re not the only one, you know? For some this is home more than the house where we live outside this walls.”

“You’re not going back home?”

“Merlin, no. The less time I have to spend with my parents, the less times I’m told what a disgrace to the family name I am.”

“Well… I, for one, am glad to know I won’t be alone in this tower. Uh, I mean, I’m sorry to hear that.” Caitlin wanted to hit herself for being so insensitive.

“Don’t be. Hey, you know what? You should talk to Mick Rory from Gryffindor, tell him Rathaway said to add you to the Secret Santa list. He organizes one every year for the few of us who stay here during winter break.”

“I don’t know… I mean, I don’t know anyone, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to include me just because I’m staying here too, someone’s going to have to think a present for me and –“

“Caitlin, we’re five people. It’ll be a little less sad if you make it six.” Caitlin looked up at Hartley, and he smiled a little smile that looked nicer than she’d ever seen on his face. “Really. Go talk to Mick, you’ll have fun and talk shit about family with other people who get it. Okay?”

“Okay. And thank you.” Hartley shrugged, saying it was nothing, and after a few minutes of silently contemplating the dwindling flames together, they both decided to turn in for the night. Caitlin had roughly nine hours to get mentally ready to approach to one Mick Rory and invite herself to his Secret Santa. Easy as pie.

 

She spent breakfast casually looking over to the Gryffindor table, watching students come and go and Rory stay and eat enough for five people. That at least gave her time to wait until the Great Hall emptied before getting up herself and heading towards him. 

He looked up when she cleared her throat softly. “You’re Mick, right?” 

He nodded and gestured for her to sit next to him while he finished swallowing the food on his mouth. “What do you want? Spell checking quill, fever fudge, time-turner, extendable ears, love potion? I can get you anything.”

“Um, no.” Although the notion of time-turners had always been intriguing to her. “Hartley said I should talk to you about Secret Santa?” 

“Ah, right. Your parents rich pureblood bastards too?” Caitlin flushed, but it was true, wasn’t it? He just didn’t sugar coat the truth like everyone else around her. “Hey, I ain’t judging. I like the Rathaway kid and his blood is as pure as it comes. We all got our things here.”

“No, no. It’s true, I guess. I mean, it hurts to think about it like this, but I didn’t even get a goodbye before coming, just a ‘a car will pick you up at the station in June’.” 

She was glad there was no pity in his expression after that declaration. It wasn’t even as bad as it sounded once you got used to it, and she’d been getting used to her parents’ dismissal of her since she’d been born.

He spooned some pudding into his plate before speaking again. 

“My parents were dragon keepers. There was an accident one day, they burned. My brothers burned with them, and I did too, only I survived.” Seeing her horrified face, he quickly added. “I’m not mad, not at that. Of course I miss them sometimes but it was long ago, and it’s a risky profession, these things happen. What I _am_ mad about, is the rest of my uncles and aunts, who wouldn’t take me because it is _suspicious_ that I was the only one to survive.” He started stuffing pudding into his mouth while he spoke. “I went into muggle foster care because of them. So I know about shitty families.”

Caitlin didn’t know what to say to all of that, her problems seeming so insignificant in comparison. She was sure ‘Sorry’ wouldn’t cut it.

“So… you like dragons too?”

He laughed at that, shiny eyes looking at her with approval. She felt like she’d passed some kind of test. 

“Hells, yeah! Dragons are awesome. I’m still mad they didn’t let me bring a Chinese Fireball as my pet. They’re totally harmless! I had to get a dumb owl instead.” He laughed again at her carefully neutral expression. “Okay, you’re in. I’ll give you a name in a week, so you have time to get a cool present for whoever you get, ‘kay?”

Caitlin said she’d leave him to his breakfast and stood up to go to class. She was almost looking forward to this holiday for the first time in her life.

 

The last week of class passed as if someone was pulling the strings of time to make days go quicker, so she glared at Professor Hunter every time she passed him on the hallways – to his absolute confusion – but not even that slowed it down.

She’d drawn Mick for Secret Santa, and she was really nervous about it. She had the perfect present thought out, but getting it… was another matter completely.

“Caity, I love you, but I really can’t do this for you, I’m sorry!” Cisco crossed his arms over his chest.

“You owe me for all the times I’ve taken notes for you in Professor Wells’ class!” Caitlin took Cisco’s hand and put a galleon in his palm. “Take this with you and it will trick Dante’s protection spells. I’ve charmed it so it’ll give anyone who has it my body signature, and your brother didn’t plan on keeping me out of his room.”

“If this goes wrong in some way, don’t think I won’t sell you out. Because I will! Friendship will only get you so far.” But despite his grumbling Caitlin could see he was already convinced. Now she just had to wait and hope she wouldn’t need a plan B, because she didn’t have one.

 

When the last of the students going home finally left, the castle seemed unnaturally quiet to Caitlin. On her first day, she went to have breakfast with Hartley and she was surprised when he guided her towards the Slytherin table.

“I told you we were only six people left, it doesn’t make sense to use separate tables.” He said.

“And we also want to know the new addition to our ranks!” A pretty girl with long dark hair actually stood up to go around the table and kiss her and Hartley’s cheeks. Caitlin wasn’t sure if the unusual familiarity was a cultural difference or a power move, but she certainly felt off-balance after that. The girl smiled at her like she knew what she was thinking. “I’m Lisa. That’s my brother Lenny, Mark, and I think you already know Mick.” She said that with a smirk, mirrored in her brother’s face, will Mick groaned and covered his face with both hands before composing himself and motioning for them to sit.

Caitlin ended up sitting between Lisa and Hartley, and all in all she didn’t feel as left out as she’d feared initially. Sure, she didn’t speak much, but mostly everyone did their thing. Mark was supposedly trying to make the ceiling rain, while Hartley tried to convince him – ineffectually – that the charm that made it mimic the outside weather could not be rewritten because it was woven into the very foundations of the building, so he’d have to blow the castle up to make it work. Mick tried to get some information out of Len, also seemingly without success, while Lisa alternated between also nagging her brother and making light conversation with Caitlin, and Caitlin found she spoke more about herself than she ever remembered doing.

After that first morning she fell under a new routine. She would get up, have breakfast with her newfound group of friends, pick something up from the library to read in her room until lunch, go back to the Great Hall, then to the common room to play muggle chess – which they’d discovered to be a hobby they shared, both having started to spite their families – or try out interesting spells they’d read about, in most cases not very practical in nature. It was holidays, after all. Then they’d go down together at dinnertime, and then she’d lock herself in her room and read some more before going to sleep. 

Christmas day came with a thick layer of snow that covered everything the eye could see. Caitlin heard a noise at her window and opened it to let a large brown horned owl inside. The owl shoved a talon into her hand and she untied the large package it was carrying. She gave the owl a biscuit and wrote a quick thank you note to Cisco, promising him a favor of his choosing in return. She took a deep breath before heading to the Great Hall that morning. She was as ready as she’d ever be for this.

 

Breakfast seemed to go quicker than ever on Christmas morning. Everyone was more focused on the bag where they’d stashed the presents than the actual food on the table, but Lisa insisted in eating first, and as Caitlin had come to learn, what Lisa wanted Lisa got. 

But when even Mick seemed to show little enthusiasm for any more food, they decided to take advantage of the sunny morning and move their party by the lake. Dressed with her warmest cloak and blue and silver scarf, Caitlin sat cross-legged on the grass when a hastily wrapped up parcel was deposited in her lap. 

“I say we open them up in the order we’re seated. I’ll start, and then Lenny’ll continue to my right!”

Again, everyone was happy to follow Lisa’s lead. She gushed appropriately at the golden necklace Mark got her; apparently it was leprechaun gold, but he’d charmed it so it would last longer and ‘she could wear it, make some girl envious, and then sell it to her for a good sum before it vanished’. Caitlin wasn’t sure whether that was supposed to be a joke or not.

Next came Len, who Hart had given a map of Hogwarts ‘almost as good as the Marauders’ map. Not as complete, but easier to modify to include any other rooms or corridors they found’. Len seemed impressed, which cracked everyone up because it was such an unusual look on his face. 

Caitlin bit her nails while Mick unwrapped her gift. She thought she was over that habit, but apparently this situation was stressful enough to start again. When the last of the paper fell away and the fossilized dragon egg was uncovered, Mick audibly gasped. He spent a good minute caressing it with reverend hands, as if afraid to break it. 

“Who –“ Mick couldn’t seem to get the full sentence out, but the meaning was clear. Four heads turned towards Caitlin, and Mick followed their gazes to look at her. She blushed bright red but didn’t avert her eyes. The small smile on her face was enough answer for him, and after a pause, he nodded and looked back down at the egg.

Caitlin heard how the others asked Hartley to get on with it and open his present, but she didn’t really pay attention to anything but Mick. He was completely absorbed with the egg, cradling it in his arms and whispering to it, and his devotion had Caitlin mesmerized. 

Lisa had to nudge her when it was her turn. She fumbled a bit with her package, but thankfully didn’t drop it. It was a miniature Swedish Short-Snout inside a glass bottle. Its silvery blue scales shone with the sunlight, and as all the group watched it with awe it sprouted a brilliant blue flame that collided against the glass and dissolved harmlessly.  
“They say its flame is so hot it burns cold. It’s one of the most elegant breeds known, they’re agile and graceful. Seem a bit closed off, like to live alone most of the time, but they’re also fiercely loyal. It reminds me of you.”

Caitlin wasn’t the only one stunned by Mick’s speech. Silence reigned over the castle grounds, while she said the only thing she could. “It’s beautiful.”

“It is.”

She looked up at that. Mick seemed to realize what he had said, and froze. Again, the others pushed to finish up while they remained caught in the moment, and it was not until much later, when the cold forced them back inside, that Caitlin noticed anything other than Mick.

And that night was the first of many nights that she fell asleep watching the Swedish Short-Snout sprout blue flames on her pillow next to her head.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, everyone stole their presents, Caitlin included via Cisco. I know it shouldn't have ended here but it's 00:30 so I'm already late and I want to go to sleep (forgive me please!!).
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](http://maqqneto.tumblr.com/)


End file.
